Wildcats Move To 8-0, With 45-7 Win Over Beavers

All images by Nate Girvan – Above: Wildcats making their entrance to the field for the contest with the Beavers

The Central Clarion Wildcats continued their winning ways with a 45-7 win over the homestanding DuBois Beavers, in there District Nine League football matchup, at E.J. Mansell Stadium on Friday (October 14th). With the win, the Wildcats improve to 8-0 for the season.

The Wildcats opened the scoring at the 6:07 mark of the first quarter, when quarterback Jase Ferguson rolled left and found Dawson Smail along the left sideline at about the two, with Smail taking it in from there for an eighteen yard touchdown. Thomas Uckert was successful on the extra point and Central had a 7-0 lead.

Then after a mix of runs and passes, the Wildcats were deep in DuBois territory. Faced with a fourth and three, the decision was made to kick the field goal. Uckert was successful on the twenty-three yarder, giving Central Clarion a 10-0 lead with thirty-six seconds left in the quarter.

Ferguson follow a great push from his line on a keeper, through the middle and into the endzone from three yards out, at 8:01 of the second and combined with Uckert’s kick, the Wildcats led 17-0.

Later in the quarter, Ryan Hummell intercepted a DuBois pass, setting Central up at the Beavers thirty-one. The Wildcats drove down the the field, with a key play having Ferguson hitting Smail on a long pass play to the Beaver six. Later, Ferguson scored his second rushing touchdown, again on a keeper, following his blockers through the middle, from the three. Uckert again was successful and Central led 24-0, at the 1:10 mark of the first half.

But the Wildcats weren’t done. Brady Quinn intercepted a pass with twenty-seconds left in the half, setting Central up at the DuBois thirty-eight. Ferguson hit Ashton Rex with a middle screen and Rex ran it to the eleven. The Wildcats called time out with eight seconds left. Then Ferguson hit Mason Burford, who got behind the defenders and made a leaping catch, just inside the back left corner of the endzone, with thee seconds left. As usual, Uckert was good again and Wildcats led 31-0, heading into the locker room.

Central Clarion received the second half kickoff, but DuBois held and the Wildcats were lined up at their own thirty-four for an apparent punt. But it was a fake, with Smail taking the ball around the right side to the Beaver forty-three and a new set of downs for the Wildcats.

Several plays later, with 6:48 on the third period clock, Ferguson hit Smail in the back left corner of the endzone, from fifteen yards out. And with Uckert’s point after, the Wildcats led 38-0.

Central would score their final touchdown on the first play of the final quarter, with Connor Kopnitsky taking it off tackle and into the endzone. Again, Uckert was good on the point after and the Wildcats led 45-0, with 11:54 left in the game.

DuBois scored on a sixty-one yard pass from Trey Wingard to Nathan Kougher, with 9:45 left. Cullen McAllister’s kick was good and the final was set at 45-7, Wildcats.

The Wildcats looked pretty solid in all phases of the game, offense, defense and special teams. They had a 28-5 edge in first downs, with 40 carries for 170 yards, compared to 13 carries for 39 yards for DuBois and had the passing advantage 314-96. Central’s total yardage advantage was 484-135. And they had a 4-0 edge in turnovers.

Ferguson was 14 for 20 passing, for 314 yards and the three touchdowns, while setting two Wildcats single season passing marks. He took over the number one position on the Wildcats single season passing list with 1,895 yards, passing Cal German’s 1,884 mark and also passed German’s single season touchdown mark by two touchdowns, 24-22.

Leading the Wildcats in receiving were Rex who had 5 catches for 149 yards and Smail who had 107 yards on 5 catches. Rex went over 1,000 receiving yards on the season and now stands at 1,035.

The leading ground gainers were Kopnitsky with 52 yards on 9 carries and Quin with 3 carries for 47 yards.

Coach Davey Eggleton had this to say about his team’s performance, “I thought we had a great overall team effort. The O and D line did a nice job controlling the line of scrimmage.

“Jase is just having a fantastic season. He has a great connection with our entire receiving corpse.

“Ashton made some big catches tonight for us and Dawson Smail also had some big plays catching the ball and the run on the rugby punt.

“I am excited about where we are and how our guys keep working each week to get better.”

The Wildcats are scheduled travel to St. Marys on Friday (October 21st).

(Great Game, Wildcats!!!! Thanks to Nate Girvan for his pics, Steve Smail for the official Wildcats’ Offensive stats and to EYT Network [Explore Clarion.com/D9Sports.com] for allowing CSZ use of their broadcast for spotting!!)